Cinta Garcia de la Rosa is a Spanish writer who has loved the written word since she discovered she was able to read books at age 5. Since then, she has become a bookworm and reads around 100 books every year. She also writes, every day, compulsively, even in the middle of the night. You cannot control when inspiration hits you, can you? She writes in English because she is convinced that in a previous life she was British, so writing in English feels more natural to her than writing in her native language. Yes, she is crazy like that. Cinta Garcia is the author of “The Funny Adventures of Little Nani”, a collection of short stories for children, and “A Foreigner in London”, a short story published on Smashwords.

First of all, thank you for hosting me on your blog and for giving me the chance to talk about my characters and where the ideas to create them come from. Well, the truth is that I use people I know and situations I live to create those characters. Obviously, the characters are not exactly the same as the real people, but some of them can be easily relatable (for the person who inspired me that character, of course).

Creating Little Nani was easy, since she is a reflection of myself. The two ostriches appeared on my mind as a funny contrast with Horse; I mean, if Little Nani’s friends wanted to ride a horse, then Little Nani should want to ride something more extravagant, just as extravagant as she is. So ostriches seemed a good choice, mainly because it was unexpected.

As for the rest of the characters, I guess I can tell a bit about their hidden story. I created the Caffeine-Addicted Zombie because all my online friends complained every single morning about how they were zombies until they got coffee. So they got in my book.

Mr. Henchick and the penguins were born after having a funny and awesome chat with my dear friend Peter Germany, in which he was telling me about his chickens and how they disliked going out when it was snowing. So I had to write a story about that.

The Double-Faced Boy was born after I discovered that a friend of mine was betraying my trust by telling lies about me. It is never a good idea to make a writer be angry with you, because you can end up in their books. That’s what happened here. He was nasty to me, I turned him into a nasty character.

Captain Bendy Leg was born in an absurd and funny chat with my friend and writing buddy Dan Leicht (D.e.e.L). I asked him if I could use it in a story, he said yes, and voilà! Captain Bendy Leg got his own story.

So basically my friends, conversations, or experiences make me think of new characters, of new friends for Little Nani. Some others just pop in my head. Why? I don’t have a clue.

One response to “Little Nani’s Characters – Where Do I Get The Ideas From by Cinta Garcia de la Rosa, author of ‘The Funny Adventures of Little Nani’”

Nice guest post! I think that inspiration for characters can come from everywhere. The chance to turn reality in something amazing is one of the best parts of being a writer.
Having read The Adventures of Little Nani (it’s a great read!), I can say that everyone can find something of himself at least in one of Cinta’s characters. For instance, I am definitely a Caffeine Addicted Zombie!